Is Kirk Cousins Still a Starting-Caliber QB in the NFL?

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00:00That the Atlanta Falcons and Kirk Cousins, of course, they are starting Michael Pennix

00:09Jr. The eighth overall pick this past April in the 2024 NFL Draft. Week 16 is the Falcons

00:16still in the hunt for the NFC South crown. It does not seem that Kirk Cousins has much

00:22of a future left with the Falcons franchise, however. But Donnie, because of the financial

00:28investment as you see the stats for Captain Kirk in his only year in Atlanta, year number

00:3313 of his NFL career, they paid him 180 mil this offseason over a four year deal. Not

00:41easy to get out of 100 million of that guaranteed. Again, not easy to get out of without taking

00:49on some of that financial burden. We have shared a couple of the numbers that will factor

00:55into the decision that Atlanta has to make moving forward. If he is cut post June 1st,

01:00it's a $40 million dead cap hit. Even if they trade him at some point this summer for anybody

01:07that is willing to take him on, Atlanta still needs to take the burden of $12.5 million

01:13on their payroll. So all of that, Donnie, that's factor into the buyer. So question

01:17to you, Kirk Cousins is still a starting caliber NFL quarterback.

01:23No, he's not. And when we're out, we're selling that all the way down. And also understand

01:28this, this wasn't the Atlanta Falcons after that performance and Raheem Morris getting

01:32together with his coaching staff and the general manager going, OK, we've got to jumpstart

01:35this franchise somehow. Let's just see what Michael Pennix has to offer for the New York

01:40Giants game. And then we'll go from there. The word coming out of Atlanta is no, this

01:44is permanent. Like we just moved on from Kirk Cousins at this point, which means we don't

01:48think he can play as well as a rookie that we've never seen in game action in the midst

01:54of a playoff race. If there was an inkling from that ownership group slash general manager

01:58and coaching staff that Kirk Cousins was still the right guy, they're right in the thick

02:02of the playoff race. They have a layup this weekend and they're telling you we can't even

02:06put Kirk Cousins out there against the Giants because we need better play at the quarterback

02:10position if we want to sweep the final three games and hopefully you see a loss from the

02:14Tampa Bay Buccaneers, let's just say, against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. So if you're

02:18thinking that he can't beat out a rookie at that price level and they're going to release

02:22him in the offseason, where is he going to go with the next thing goes like, ah, you

02:25know what? This is the perfect guy we needed because we think we're really close to winning

02:29a division because let's make no bones about this. I love the move for them to get Kirk

02:33Cousins in the offseason because I saw the minute they got Cousins figuring he would

02:38be healthy and be competent. They were the best team in that division. And if you're

02:41an ownership group in a team, you owe it to your fan base to say, you know what? We have

02:44a chance to win this division. Let's get this quarterback. And it didn't work out at all.

02:48There's no way another franchise is going to pick up Kirk Cousins, say, you know what?

02:51We're close to the playoffs where we think we can win the division. This is our guy.

02:55So I'm selling it there. There's no way Kirk Cousins is going to be a legitimate NFL starter

02:59on a franchise that's actually looking to do anything in the future.